The special instructions tell us that all across solutions share a common theme, not further defined. This may prompt the usual comments that such puzzles turn out to be a write-in for the initiated and / or a chore for the less well informed.
A bell began to ring as I entered 8ac, followed by 10ac, and all became clear at 13ac. [I’m afraid my heart did not leap for joy at this point.]
I have no quarrel with the clues [although I don’t understand 16ac]: once again, Pasquale has played fair by scrupulously straightforward cluing of less familiar [particularly to non-UK residents] British Prime Ministers, except in 26ac, which requires knowledge of a London suburb. However, although History is one of my interests, I found the puzzle a rather arid slog, especially when it came to the blog, since I felt duty-bound to supply the dates for the periods of office.
I was struck by the paucity of anagrams in this puzzle and by the presence of three hidden answers. The clues were mainly simple charades and insertions and although there were some nice surfaces, I found it totally devoid of ‘aha’ moments and, I’m afraid, any hint of humour [except that I did smile rather wryly when I came to GRAFTON when writing the blog].
Thanks to Pasquale for the workout.
[Just as I was about to post the blog, I noticed the link between 25ac and 7ac. I don’t know whether this is accidental, a deliberate misdirection or an indication that there is another mini-theme. I am due to go out on a walk shortly, so I have no time to pursue the possibilities, since this area is almost a closed book, as it were, to me. Apologies to Pasquale if there is a lot more going on.]
Across
7 Revelling wildly (9)
GRENVILLE
Anagram [wildly] of REVELLING
[George Grenville 1763-65 or William Wyndham, 1st Lord Grenville, 1806-7]
8 Raise the temperature of hospital minimally (5)
HEATH
HEAT [raise the temperature of] + H [ospital]
[Edward Heath 1970-74]
9 Fellow keeping a factory cold inside (9)
MACMILLAN
MAN [fellow] round A MILL [a factory] with C [cold] inside
[Harold MacMillan 1957-63]
10 Thin — or thick pared at edges (5)
NORTH
Hidden in thiN OR THick
[Lord North 1770-82]
12 Players who may be led by maestro into victory (6)
WILSON
LSO [London Symphony Orchestra – players who may be led by maestro] in WIN [victory] – I liked this surface
[Harold Wilson 1964-70 and 1974-75]
13 Not this singer divorced from husband (8)
THATCHER
THAT [not this] + CHER [singer] – but I don’t understand ‘divorced from husband’
[Margaret Thatcher 1979-90]
16 Game’s deception (7)
RUSSELL
I’m afraid I can’t see this one
[Lord John Russell 1846-52 and 1865-6]
19 Continue to work hard (7)
GRAFTON
GRAFT ON
[Augustus Fitzroy, 3rd Duke of Grafton 1768-70]
22 Friend embracing top woman very briefly outside church (8)
PERCEVAL
PAL [friend] round ER [queen – top woman] + V[ery] round CE [church]
[Spencer Perceval 1809-1812 – as all pub-quizzers know, the only British PM to have been assassinated]
25 Quiet part of southeast London time’s forgotten (6)
PELHAM
P [quiet] + EL[t]HAM [part of southeast London minus t – time]
[Henry Pelham 1743-54]
27 Something that may be mopped at back of kitchen (5)
BROWN
BROW [may be mopped] + [kitche]N
[Gordon Brown 2007-10]
28 Organ fund (9)
LIVERPOOL
LIVER POOL – can be read as either a charade or a cryptic definition
[Lord Liverpool 1812-27]
29 Loud harsh noise to be heard (5)
BLAIR
Sounds like [to be heard] ‘blare’ [loud harsh noise]
[Tony Blair 1997-2007]
30 Duck on river flowing west (9)
MACDONALD
DONALD [duck] after [on] reversal [flowing backwards] of CAM [river]
[Ramsay MacDonald 1924, 1929-31 and 1931-36]
[Duck is another of Pasquale’s pseudonyms, which are all connected with his first name, Don[ald]
Down
1 Man of fashion found among farm animals (6)
ARMANI
Hidden in fARM ANImals
2 A fog’s engulfing province — everything alive for these folk? (8)
ANIMISTS
A MIST’S [a fog’s] round NI [Northern Ireland – province – no comment]
3 Instrument heard in terrible bar? (6)
VIOLIN
Sounds a bit like vile [terrible] inn [bar]
4 A learner and master at a location in Kazakhstan (4-3)
ALMA ATA
A simple charade for the former capital of Kazakhstan: A L [a learner] + A MA [a master] + AT A
5 Brave soldiers summoned up, corralled by the man in charge (6)
HEROIC
Reversal [summoned up] of OR [soldiers] in HE [the man] IC [in charge]
6 Country protecting classy work of art (6)
STATUE
STATE [country] round U [classy]
11 Show growth (4)
HAIR
Double definition
14 Sock drained of colour we chucked (3)
HIT
w[HIT]e [drained of colour] minus [chucked] ‘we’
15 Old character shortly getting control (3)
RUN
RUN[e] [old character]
16 Be very critical of conversation during music? (3)
RAP
Double definition
17 Gentleman‘s agitation when time is wasted (3)
SIR
S[t]IR – a second instance of ‘time’ being used as the indication to remove a ‘t’
18 Nothing greater than this? Nothing! (4)
LOVE
Double definition, referring to 1 Corinthians 13: ‘The greatest of these is love’ and the tennis score
20 Asian pastry — one thing to roll it must be imported (8)
FILIPINO
I PIN [one thing to roll it] in FILO [pastry]
[I’ve only ever encountered ready-rolled filo 😉 ]
21 Last bits of words not entirely difficult I master (7)
ULTIMAS
A third hidden answer – in difficULT I MASter
23 English truly lacking a leader in a very strange way (6)
EERILY
E [English] + [v]ERILY [truly]
24 Firm wipe shifted beastly dung (6)
COWPIE
CO [firm] + anagram [shifted] of WIPE: I don’t think I’ve come across this word before – I only knew cow pat
25 False note commencing our community party (6)
PSEUDO
PS [note] + EU [our community] + DO [party]
26 A head, little old god (6)
APOLLO
A POLL [a head] + O [old] – why ‘little?]
Thanks Pasquale and Eileen
Very clever, but unsatisfactory as a puzzle, I thought. I started with the obvious anagram at 7ac, which gave two possibilities for the theme. The easy 8a confirmed which one; all that was then required was to find a list of British P.M.s and see who would fit where.
I did like ARMANI and COWPIE.
many thanks Elaine & Pasquale. just a thought for 16a…Game’s = R.U.’s and deception is “sell”??
Hi jkb_ing
Thanks, that’ll do me – and it’s good to have it cleared up before I go out!
Continuing my run of errors, I misspelled ‘Perceval’.
At 16a, I think it’s R.U’s (rugby union’s) for ‘game’ and ‘SELL’ for deception.
I’ve also never come across ‘cowpie’ for ‘cowpat’ – the former is surely only Desperate Dan’s favourite fare.
Thanks Eileen: hope you enjoy your walk more than the puzzle.
Thanks Pasquale and Eileen. My first across was THATCHER which did make the theme obvious. However, the rest of the across clues were by no means a write-in since there are quite a few I hadn’t heard of and a lot of the obvious ones (disraeli, gladstone, major etc) are missing. So I enjoyed this – I did it all a pretty steady pace too, no head-scratchers left at the end.
Sorry jkb_ing, our postings crossed, but I’m glad we agree.
Like Eileen I am still confused about the “divorced from husband” part of 13ac – Cher is indeed divorced but that seems to be true of most singers!
Thanks to Eileen for her self-imposed dedication to completeness.
Political history is weak with me so had to look some of these chaps up; so was fascinated to learn that Spencer Perceval was shot in 1812 in the Lobby of the House of Commons by “a disgruntled merchant who held the Government responsible or his losses”. Could we benefit from more direct action of this sort, today?
Thank you, Don, I enjoyed the work-out.
Is Eltham known north of the Thames let alone the rest of the world?
Thanks Eileen.
I found this much easier than P’s usual and I actually finished it – a rare event for me for a P.
I abandoned the cross clues after a couple as I thought I wasn’t going to get the theme easily, and did the downs first. So BROWN was my first, and immediately thought colours! GRENVILLE was next and THATCHER fixed it.
I though it was a great achievement by P to fit a PM in every across solution.
I’ve had time to read the blog now (sorry Eileen – I wanted to post before I went out shopping!)
I had heard of COWPIE (see http://www.thefreedictionary.com/cowpie). I was reminded of the story of the old chap whose beret blew off in the cowfield and he tried on 10 before finding the right one.
I agree with the parsing of RUSSELL suggested by others.
Should ALMA-ATA have been flagged up as an old name for what is now “Almaty”?
P.S. I know using a list of P.M.s is “cheating”, but I think it would have taken a keen student of British history to get all of them without such a list – though I had heard of all of them except, for some reason, Grafton. (Any connection with Dublin’s Grafton Street?)
Cher became known as a singer in 60’s and 70’s as half of Sonny and Cher. They were very successful (I’ve Got You Babe was a big hit). They were married and they did get divorced. She became known as a singer and actress singly as Cher afterwards.
For a few happy moments, having written in Heath at 8a, I thought Don had a theme of string quartets: 7a could be Vellinger. Perhaps an idea for next time ….
Elizabeth @13 – of course, thanks for that explanation. I seem to recall that the husband was a bit on the brutal side towards her…or was that Ike Turner?
sidey @ 9: Eltham is where Stephen Lawrence was murdered, so most in the UK at least will have come across it repeatedly, even if it didn’t stick.
Thanks for the blog, Eileen. My way into the theme was via NORTH and HEATH. I felt much the same about the puzzle as you did. Given that I studied British politics as part of my degree, I should have had no trouble with the PMs — but I eventually resorted to Wiki to finish. Couldn’t see the parsing of Russell either.
ULTIMAS was my last one in — wasn’t expecting another hidden…
SIR PELHAM GRENVILLE indeed, but alas, no sign of Jeeves.
Thanks, Eileen
This took me a while to get going, but once I had a couple of across clues (GRENVILLE and HEATH, as it happens) the penny dropped. I must have been looking for more complexity in the clue constructions to have had such a slow start, because they are all more straightforwardly put together than in many Pasquale crosswords.
I did enjoy the puzzle, which I managed without having to look up any of the PMs, though I did fill in quite a few acrosses by dredging old premiers out of the memory and seeing if they would fit anywhere, rather than working each one out at a time from the wordplay.
Pity there wasn’t room for Henry CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN!
I was a bit ambivalent about this one. I got the theme quickly, and as Eileen says, once you know what you’re looking for, then the cluing and the enumerations give you most of the acrosses (although I did struggle with a couple of them).
But an achievement to fill all the acrosses with the PMs, and for once the grid from hell did not hinder my solving.
Thanks to Don and to our new blogger, Elaine.
Good setting to fit in the Prime Ministers but I just used a list after I started with Macmillan.
Thanks Eileen; surely ‘drained of colour’ is black, not white. There are plenty of colours in white light – just look at a rainbow! Or is this being too pedantic?
I think the ‘little’ in 26d is just there for the surface – reads a bit strained without it.
Many thanks Eileen (or Elaine?) and The Don.
This was very enjoyable although I was very surprised when Dear Old Winston didn’t appear @ 7a.
muffin @12
The PM was the 3rd Earl of Grafton. The Dublin street was named after the 1st Earl, who owned the land.
Unused here, the 2nd Earl of Shelburne was a PM. He was also the 1st Marquess of Lansdowne. Two main roads
in Dublin are named after him, the latter being better known. Perhaps he or a relation owned them.
I’ve just noticed that Eileen stated that one of Lord John RUSSELL’s terms as PM ran 1946-52. I never realised that Attlee was a reincarnation of the Whig/Liberal reformer, but it’s not altogether implausible.
The iPad version of the crossword didn’t have the special instructions, and so I almost gave up as I went through the across clues in order and couldn’t get a single one! Eventually, after puzzling over why ‘divorced from husband’ would be a straight clue for ‘Thatcher’, the penny dropped after ‘Heath’ went in!
Hi Robi
I was about to comment about ‘drained of colour’, when I remembered seeing that expression in novels, describing people’s faces when they turned pale!
I agree, of course, about ‘little’ in 26dn – it just seemed rather odd, when almost every day we have O = old.
I was in such a hurry to get out that I didn’t even notice my new name! [I wouldn’t normally be back so soon but – horrors! – the pub was closed beause the access and car park was being excavated.]
I also meant to say that, in my haste, I might have got some dates wrong, or missed a term of office, so many thanks for that, Gervase @24! 😉 I will amend it forthwith.
Colin Inman @14
Maybe Don is saving that one for a Bradman. 😉
Walk to a pub to find it closed. That and a ho-hum puzzle. My sympathies Eileen.
Well I thought we might be on to admirals with GRENVILLE but as for others THATCHER rather gave the game away. A few quite nice clues but as others have said it becomes a memory test. Still I have learnt a few more names.
MACDONALD last one in. One of many I would like to forget.
yes many apologies for the typo Eileen! despite lurking in here most days and enjoying the wisdom and wit of the blogs, I rarely chip in with any comments, as others usually beat me to it; and now, when I do, I pressed submit before checking what i’d written. duhhhh.
Thanks, rhotician
Nightmare scenario, Eileen!
I’m wildly proud as an American (albeit an Anglophile and a history buff) that I did this without looking up any of the PMs.
I knew the 20th- and 21st-century ones, naturally enough. North and Grenville are prominent in American history too–it’s their fault that we dumped y’all when we did (though it probably would have happened eventually anyway). Several of the others I’d only vaguely heard of (Pelham, Liverpool), and there were three that were new to me–Grafton, Russell, and Perceval.
A few of these were a matter of fitting a prime minister in and then seeing how the clue worked afterwards.
Most of the pre-20th-C. prime ministers that even non-Anglophile Americans have heard of (Disraeli, Gladstone, Walpole, Pitt, etc.) are missing. I guess this is by way of making it a bit of a challenge for the people who grew up on this stuff?
Anyway, wonderful trivia exercise–thanks Pasquale, and Eileen.
I cottoned onto the theme
My first PM was PELHAM, and when GRENVILLE became clear I thought about Wodehouse and briefly doubted Thatcher (my knowledge of 18th century PMs is a bit sketchy – for me O level history started with Gladstone & Disraeli. Interesting that Thatcher is the most recent Tory on the list. This was my earliest finish of the week, so it must have been one of the Don’s easiest, ULTIMAS was last in and old MACDONALD was the last PM.
Thanks to Eileen & Pasquale
Eltham’s claim to international fame is as the birthplace of Bob Hope.
Thanks Eileen and Pasquale. Learned some new PM’s which were not mentioned in my High School
history classes. First entry was Brown and I thought colors. But next was Thatcher and then
the theme was evident. Next entry was Alma-Ata which gave me the L in 7ac. Confidently
entered Churchill. That error slowed me down for a while. However, got there in the end.
Cheers…
Thanks Eileen and Pasquale
I found this enjoyable and managed to work out the PMs I was not familiar with.
Contrary to Trailman, I was tickled by 26a.
Re William@15 Although Sonny Bono wasn’t great at fidelity, he was a talented guy and shouldn’t be confused with Ike Turner.
I enjoyed the crossword, although the theme was quickly apparent, it was good to trawl the depths for the answers. My favourite clue was 20d.
Has anyone else mentioned that the definition of 25d PSEUDO is “False”, not “False note”?
Peterjohn @37
It appears not. Thank you – a lapsus digiti, occasioned by my haste – amended now.
tupu @35 (if you’re still there) – it was the PM at 26a I’d like to forget, not the clue!
When I saw the special instructions I decided to read through the downs first and fill in as many of them as possible before going to the acrosses.
The theme became obvious after a couple of the acrosses were entered, but I still found this an enjoyable puzzle and the more obscure of the PMs were clearly clued so I didn’t have a problem teasing out the answers.
PSEUDO was my LOI after MACDONALD, talking of whom, Trailman@28 – you don’t strike me as being that old ……….
The reputation’s enough Andy B
Maybe the Cher clue is “divorced from husband” because she didn’t use her husband’s sir name – just Cher!
Instantly wrote in 7A as it is the only obvious anagram of revelling. Then 8,9,10,12 and 13 were write-ins as I had the theme.
After this it was dull, dull, dull……
Possibly the worst week we have had for many a year!
Thank god for the Shed.
Thanks to Eileen and Pasquale.
Let’s hope our editor is back from his holidays soon 😉
Mixed reactions as ever to a Pasquale puzzle. Sometimes his solutions are too obscure, today his solutions were apparently too obvious (for some).
Even I, as a non-Brit, spotted the theme early on (after North and Thatcher) but was confused by Liverpool.
Some were indeed a write-in without even looking at the clue but I/we didn’t find that an obstacle for enjoying the puzzle.
I echo Robi that filling a grid this way with PMs is quite an achievement. And apparently not really important for or appreciated by most of the posters above.
Pasquale is often “accused” of having no humour but we smiled at 30ac’s Duck. I know that Pasquale has no affinity with bum/bottom/bra clues as being the extra bonus to crosswords. And actually, nowadays I agree.
His cluing is fair, his surfaces are good, still many solvers do not find that enough.
I would say, soit, be it so.
We thought this was a clever, well-written crossword though easy on the scale of Don Manley.
Dull, dull, dull?
Well, it’s all about what one’s looking for in a crossword, isn’t it?
Many thanks Eileen.
Sil. How difficult can it be to take a list as long as that of the British PMs and fit some of them into a Guardian grid? Especially when one chooses to use only the across clues, so no intersections.
Great surfaces? I assume you are excluding 13A and 14D, to name two,from this plaudit?
And 30A was far too reminiscent of the famous “Bradman’s famous duck.(6)” to be amusing.
Well, Brendan, I would say: try it yourself.
First, you have to find a proper grid to start with, next you’ll have to fill it with MPs. The main problem is that it is then quite likely to get impossible down options.
Yes, in general I like Don Manley’s surfaces.
They mostly ( 🙂 ) make sense.
Despite your remark on 30ac, I fear I liked the clue.
As I said on earlier occasions, we are all different aren’t we?
But I admit, while (in this place) I am a huge fan of setters like Picaroon, Arachne, Qaos and Philistine, I have great admiration for the cryptic skills of Don Manley in all of his disguises. It wasn’t like that when I started doing crosswords but I have learnt to appreciate this setter’s real craftmanship.
By the time I was at 25d it wasn’t fun any more.
My third clue in was 12a, WILSON, so I knew I was in for PMs or obscure cricketers. Then I filled in about 9 PMs. The down clues weren’t very good. I might have laughed at 25d. But it was an awful clue. What does “commencing” do there?
Thanks for the 3/4 of a puzzle fun, Pasquale, and for a fine blog, Eileen and the rest of you lot.
Really enjoyable. I just don’t understand the carping and I echo what Sil wrote above. An enjoyable gallop if done without a wiki or a Pears.
Incidentally, I always post a day late on here because we do the crossword a day late in the depths of Norfolk. We never have our Graun before 11.00am.
Hi Sil,
Yes we are all different and one man’s meat etc. I appreciate that you are fond of the Don’s style and he is obviously a very competent setter.
He can and does produce some cracking puzzles. However, in my opinion, he does have the tendency to take short cuts occasionally. His most common habit is to throw in a few very esoteric vocabulary as answers in the Torquemada style. This is a little unfair.
In this case I don’t think he has considered how his “theme” will affect the solve. Majority opinion seems to agree it was a bit dull!
Yes I have tried to fill in grids and it is a lot easier nowadays with computer help. (In fact it’s a doddle) In this case Pasquale had in excess of 50 names to go at. Fill in the across grid first and then by rack of eye look for any obvious “impossible” downs. Rearrange to remove these and only when it looks reasonable let the computer do the work!
It was however a pretty bad week. 🙁
After solving my first across clues of BROWN, BLAIR and WILSON on the left of the grid and HEATH and THATCHER on the right, I thought Pasquale might have trouble continuing this placement, confirmed with MACMILLAN appearing on the left.
An enjoyable puzzle to this apprentice solver.
Five posters applaud the clever construction; one is unconvinced, but unconvincing.
Ten solvers report enjoyment, eight dissatisfaction.
I don’t get why ‘U’ is classy
Hi Chris @52
If you’re new to cryptic crosswords [and, if you’re new to this site, welcome!] this is a pretty common crossword convention, well worth filing away. See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U_and_non-U_English
Thanks Pasquale and Eileen
Late to do this one … and only looked at it yesterday. Didn’t find it too bad a slog and interesting to see some of the lesser known PM’s, including the assassinated Spenser Perceval who I didn’t know of.
Interesting that some of these men are known by their actual surname, yet others are referred to by their title name – LIVERPOOL, GRAFTON, etc.
Struggled for a while with the I and O placement in FILIPINO … having written filopina initially.
Overall a not too hard but enjoyable solve for me.